Iconic American artist Barbara Kruger has utilised her provocative photography and graphic art hybrid work to call out Donald Trump on the cover of New York Magazine. The cover has the familiar red box and Futura typeface with ‘LOSER’ slapped across the Republican presidential candidate’s face.
New York Magazine’s editor-in-chief Adam Moss said of the cover: “(we) were drawn to it, in part, for the three ways in which it could be interpreted: as Trump speaking (single word epithets being his specialty); as a description of Trump; and as a call on the election result. On this latter point, who knows – and we confess to being a little rattled when the Comey letter news broke just as were shipping it. But in the end we felt that the power of Kruger’s image transcended any one meaning you could read into it.”
“The issue analyses many aspects of Trump’s extraordinary candidacy, and an important point is spelled out in the headline we appended to the bottom corner: Trump has already changed America, not much for the better. Which adds a fourth meaning: in that sense we are all losers too,” Moss added.
Known for her bold, head-on pieces of conceptual art that explore gender, sexuality and consumerism alike, Kurger's aesthetic has been a major influence on countless brands and creatives in the fashion and art worlds, and essentially the biggest inspiration for the graphic identity of skate brand Supreme. Her exhibition In The Tower: Barbara Kruger recently opened at the National Gallery of Art, featuring some of her subversive works that confront spectators with her use of active verbs and pronouns, and famous pieces such as Untitled (Know nothing, Believe anything, Forget everything).
In a recent interview with Dazed, Kruger referred to Trump as a “buffoon”, a “childish narcissist” and a “shallow silly bully”.
